Scotland Yard is facing a new case of alleged police racism after a black firefighter who tried to assist officers while off duty claimed he was targeted because of his skin colour, abused, assaulted and shot with a stun gun.
The complaint lodged by Edric Kennedy-Macfoy, 28, from north London, is the 10th case involving alleged racism known to have been referred to the official police watchdog in the last three weeks.
Kennedy-Macfoy was driving through Harrow around 3.30am on 4 September when he saw a young man hurl a rock at a police van. After noting a description of the young man, Kennedy-Macfoy, who also trained as a police constable, flagged down the van driver and approached a line of officers to pass the information on.
He said he was horrified at their response, which he alleges included officers behaving like “wild animals”: swearing at him, dragging him from his car, subjecting him to a “violent” attack and eventually shooting him with a stun gun.
Kennedy-Macfoy was found not guilty in February of obstructing police. During a two-day trial at Brent magistrates court, Inspector David Bergum, who was present on the night, said his officers were in a “stressful” situation and had been dealing with a group of partygoers who had been throwing missiles at them.
He said of Kennedy-Macfoy: “I couldn’t say he was anything to do with the party. The party was all black. He was black. He had driven through the cordon. I had to do a quick risk assessment.”
Details of the inspector’s comments in court were sent to the Metropolitan police‘s complaints department last week. The force confirmed four days later that it would refer the case to the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC).
There are now 12 cases of alleged racism under investigation: six are being investigated internally at the Met, while the other six are being handled by the IPCC.
They include the case of Met police constable Alex MacFarlane, who discovered on Wednesday that he is to face criminal charges over a mobile phone recording which allegedly captured him racially abusing a black suspect…….MORE HERE